I’m Going Trainspotting

Oh to have my evenings back again.

The last two weeks have been rather intense in the world of Ken as I’ve been preparing for Trainspotting (in which I play Tommy) with The Devious Theatre Company. Hit the office at 8:30am, leave in time for rehearsals at 6, get home for 10, hit the bed and start the cycle again.

Of course, next week is no different barring the fact I’m actually taking some time for myself outside of the office, allowing the catch up on sleep and focus on the fact that Trainspotting runs for five nights in Kilkenny next week.

It’s been a bit of a risk on the part of the company going into the production. I certainly can’t think of anything like it that’s been attempted in Kilkenny in the past, or in the Watergate Theatre for that matter, but such is the ethos of the company. We’re constantly looking for performance pieces to suit our own age group (mid to late twenties), works that we would happily swap the cinema for or the pub for and I would hope we’ve nailed that thought right on the head with Trainspotting.

I’ve spent the last eight weeks working as producer on the show outside of rehearsal hours while getting to grips with Scottish accents, the understanding of heroin use and addiction and a lot more besides.

If you want to catch an interesting piece of theatre by an amateur company boasting professional ambitions, then drop along to the Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny from June 24 to June 28. Tickets for the show are only €12 nightly, kick off set for 8pm and we’ll try have you in the pub for a post show drink and a chat by 10pm.

You can follow some rehearsal blog posts and catch the promo artwork and teaser posters for each character by visiting DeviousTheatre.com.

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Tracking The Apple WWDC

A quick spy on TechCrunch this morning shows that Twitter have partnered with Summize to provide tracking of the Apple WWDC running in San Francisco until this Friday.

If you’re interested, you can follow the Summize output for ‘WWDC’ by clicking here or get the all encompassing feed of ‘WWDC, Apple, iPhone and Steve Jobs’ by clicking here.

The Australian Macintosh Community has live coverage available on MacTalk Australia while you can also track Macworld’s coverage here.

Though the event was sold out well in advance, Apple will be publishing sessions videos from across the week for purchase via iTunes. You can of course check the official Apple Developer Connection site for more on the WWDC.

Say Hello To 3G iPhone In Europe

If word is to be believed, we’re getting closer to the launch of the 3G iPhone in Europe, or at least the announcement of it. Of course, we’ve all known it’s been coming for months.

Engadget Mobile reports via Reuters that this Monday or Tuesday will see Italian mobile carrier TIM announce the availability of a 3G model of the iPhone, certainly something more suitable at present for potential Irish users.

Though I would be quite happy to bag an iPhone without 3G capability, the addition of the 3G service would certainly push me closer to picking one up as a second phone (yes, a *second* phone as I love my N95 a bit too much), with the option of running the iPhone as a strict data phone only.

Touch.net (translated from Italian) are reporting the launch date to be June 9/10, following an announcement from the US, presumably at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference being held in San Francisco next week.

Quadband GSM, triband HSDPA and GPS are all said to be a runner (see here) on the new model of the phone, along with a stylish new black design (black is the new black don’t you know) and a fwe aesthetic modifications.

Let’s wait and see what happens on Monday, shall we?

Convert DOCX To DOC On A Mac (OSX)

One of the developments of Microsoft Office 2007 was the introduction of the Office Open XML file format for Word Documents (extension is .docx), presentations etc. One of my clients has apparently upgraded in recent days as the new attachments I receive are all .docx, unreadable on the Mac in Office 2004, OpenOffice, any way you look at it.

None of the online converters I tried seemed to be working (one wanted a “lifetime” fee of US$5 to access to a conversion tool). Microsoft, on the other hand, released a beta converter for OSX that will convert your unreadable .docx documents to DOC / RTF format allowing them to be opened and edited. Via Microsoft…

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2.1 (Beta)

This version of the converter extends the expiration date for this beta release.

This version of the converter can convert the following Open XML file formats:

• Word Document (*.docx)
• Word Macro-Enabled Document (*.docm)
• PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)
• PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx)
• PowerPoint Template (*.potx)

The converter is a Beta release, and might be unable to convert all the data in Open XML files. After you convert a file, you should review the file carefully to make sure that it contains all of the information that you expect. For a complete list of known issues, install and open the converter, and then on the Help menu, click Office Converter Help.

This Beta release expires on December 31, 2008.

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As converters go, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It installs with ease into your Applications folder then works on a drag-and-drop basis i.e. drag your unreadable document onto the app window and presto, one readable and workable document. You can find it by clicking here.